There was a picture with the article, linked to Doves yesterday, on a
possible plague in which people will be triaged.  The picture was of
the "Green Lake" street car, circa 1918, in Seattle, which people were
not allowed to board without a mask during the world wide flu epidemic.

I wasn't alive in l918, but those street cars were still around when I
was a child, and they were magic to me.  You can see in this picture
that the cars were very well built, using the quality materials which
were standard at that time--solid wood, solid metal, rubber.  And they
ran on rails, and did not pollute by belching gasoline fumes like the
buses which replaced them.

I remember my dad was so sad that the street cars would be replaced by
busses.  He knew it meant pollution, and he, like me, was extra
sensitive to pollution.  He knew it meant an end to quality, that
everything would gradually become plastic, resin-based, amalgamated,
and throw-away.  Cheap.

When I was little, we waited for a similar street car to take us
downtown.  Our streetcar said "Montlake" on its front sign, and that
was one of the first words I learned to pronounce.  If we waited after
dark, as we occasionally did, there would be a bright light at the
front of the car which we could see from far away, as it crossed the
Montlake Bridge and came to our stop.  I can still remember the clean
air of that time, the rain-washed air of unpolluted Seattle.

I called the street car the "Live Montlake," because I liked to imagine
it was alive.  It was just like the one in the picture with the story
on the coming epidemic, except that its sign said "Montlake" instead of
"Green Lake."

We went to Green Lake, too, although it was some ways away, and those
memories of the Green Lake Park wading pool and the birds and graceful
trees overhanging the little waterfall--those are among my very best. 
My parents were good parents, even though at that time they did not
profess to be Christians.  I believe that some who follow the ways of
Jesus are on His Way.  It's not that they were perfect or righteous. 
They just were much better than the average parents today, whether or
not they go to "church".  There still was a Way visible in our society
at that time.  That Way is almost invisible now, just as the "Live
Montlake" no longer runs on its track, just smelly, gaspy, noisy buses
sharing the street with way too many automobiles.

I wish I could print off the picture of the "Green Lake" street car,
but I can only get its ghostly outlines.  In the Millennium, I think
there may be some wonderful street cars rather than buses, or something
else to carry people around that is made of quality stuff.  The
Millennium will have all quality stuff, no plastic junk, gas pollution,
or wood amalgams...just the Real Thing.

Mariel